"My Arsenal" a poem about gun violence

Every 16 hrs a woman is shot and killed by an intimate partner in the United States. Gun violence has been deemed a "public health crisis" by the American Medical Association. America needs better research into gun safety and violence in order to make better gun policies to prevent this growing crisis. Every day the news is filled with stories of gun violence and mass shootings. I feel helpless. This poem was my attempt to vocalize that feeling and sense of urgency.

"My Arsenal" by Asherah

Anger is my arsenal

This pen my lethal weapon

As I raise my voice to fight

This political armageddon.

A war wrought with destruction

Of innocent observers

Saving victims of this violence

With verbal life-preservers.

It’s all I have to offer

It’s all I have to give.

These words

This poem

My honesty

In hopes that we may live

Free of bloodied bullets

And of suffocating fear

Unsure what lies ahead

Our future is unclear.

Without new regulations

To fix this thriving issue

Deaths from growing gun violence

Will exponentially continue

My scribbles scream for help

Its frantic pleas forsaken

Trusting you to keep us safe

We were thoroughly mistaken.

This poem is dedicated to every politician that has refused to pass responsible gun legislation and is a voice for those who will die in the days ahead because of our leaders incompetence, willful ignorance, and greed. The National Rifle Association spent almost half a BILLION dollars in the 2016 election to elect pro-gun politicians into office. Meanwhile...women, children, students, and thousands of innocent lives are taken each year by gun violence.

Thank you for this poem. I also feel so angry and so helpless at the same time. I can’t even believe that we live in a country where it’s standard practice for the kids to practice hiding from an active shooter in their classrooms starting in preschool. And yet we all just walk around and act as if this is normal and acceptable.